Trump is coming to Palestine. Ever since the announcement of the American president’s upcoming visit to the region May 20-23, top Palestinian Authority (PA) officials keep repeating these few words to themselves in disbelief. Their wonderment is not simply at another visit by a US president to PA territory, but also at the diplomatic victory achieved by their proper preparations, admirable diplomatic sophistication and, especially, hard work.

While the Israeli right wing was celebrating Donald Trump’s election as heralding the arrival of the Messiah and starting to draw up plans for annexing most of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and accelerating construction in the Israeli settlements there, the Palestinians were busy brainstorming. They sought to decipher the Trump code and recorded achievements far exceeding expectations.

As reported here several days following the Nov. 8 US presidential elections, right after Trump was elected, the Palestinian leadership set up a steering committee of scholars of the United States, aided by experts on US governance, academics and politicians. The role of this team was to advise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on how to establish channels of communication with a White House perceived as the most pro-Israel, anti-Muslim ever.

Palestinian diplomacy has since recorded several impressive achievements: blocking the initiative to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite Trump’s campaign pledge; an administration warning to Israel regarding continued construction in the settlements; and Trump’s hosting of Abbas at the White House on May 3. Now comes the decisive stage of the Palestinian relationship with the Trump administration. The goal is to persuade the Americans that the Palestinian leadership, like Israel, is a strategic defense asset in the Middle East. What appeared in the initial period after the US elections as a pipe dream is now seemingly a realistic and feasible scenario.